


His Ended Idolatry

by Elise_Davidson (orphan_account)



Series: 25 Ways to Sing [2]
Category: Scrubs
Genre: 25 Ways to Sing, Challenge Response, F/M, M/M, Multi, Prompt Fic, Prompt Response
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-28
Updated: 2013-06-28
Packaged: 2017-12-16 09:35:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/860637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Elise_Davidson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"He's annoyed when he gets the text; because really, way to heap on the pressure by saying "DJ, if you and I can't save him together, than he's done for". JD thinks differently."</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Ended Idolatry

**Author's Note:**

> Urgh, I was doing it all wrong :( Sorry, folks, if you got spammed with a fandom not yours!
> 
> Song: "Until the End"-Breaking Benjamin

"You just think you're so fucking clever, don't you?" Perry screams at her. His breath reeks of alcohol, and she's pretty sure the sweat (fuck, ew, that's grease, not sweat) on his face is three days old. He won't let go of not only the glass of ice in one hand, but the bottle of whiskey in the other. "If you're so fucking smart, why don't you do my job? Huh? What's the fucking princess got to say to that?"

Jordan glares at him viciously. "I'm done," she snaps at him. "I'm fucking done. You want to sit in a pile of your own goddamn filth for three days over something you can't predict? Go fucking sit." She turns sharply, because she really doesn't care what his reaction is at this point.

Perry follows her; she can hear him stumbling into walls on the way. "I can't do it alone," he shouts after her, and there's a hint of desolation to his tone that almost makes her turn around, but she refuses to. "Don't make me do this alone, goddamn it!"

Jordan doesn't respond, and grabs an already-packed duffel from the closet in their room. She saddles it with a huff and storms past him where Perry is standing in the doorway. She's in Jack's room when she hears him stumbling back to the living room.

Jack stares up at her, his eyes bright and fearful of all the yelling. "Daddy drinks a lot," he says, and it should be funny, but it isn't.

Jordan smiles at him, because Jack is young enough to still need protection. "Mommy does too, so it's okay," she says to him in the funniest voice she can manage right now, and tickles his ribs.

Perry is sitting forlornly on the couch as she and Jack walk from the hallway—well, Jack more teeters than anything, still learning to use his legs properly. "Don't go, Jordaroo-cious," he stumbles out, managing an amalgam of his mocking nicknames for her.

Jordan rubs her nose against Jack's. "Wait by the door, okay?" she says, and Jack giggles when she gives him a butterfly kiss against his cheek. She walks him to the door so she can face Perry alone on the couch. He stares at her like he's going to break—she thinks he might have shattered already.

"Don't," he says, but it's all he manages to get out before his face goes slightly ashy, and he turns his head to burp. She's afraid for a minute that he's going to vomit—he manages to run to the bathroom first though, and she waits.

She waits, not because what she has to say is particularly important, but because she has to say this before she takes Jack to her mother's, and herself with him.

Jordan rubs Jack's hair again before setting him up with race cars on the floor. She goes to the bathroom, where Perry hugging the side of the bathtub miserably.

"I need my…my…I need my thing," he staggers, and can't get himself to his feet.

Jordan can't decide if she pities him, hates him, or loves him. She kneels beside of him. "It's not enough for you, is it?" she asks, and her voice is devoid of emotion. "It's over. I can't sit here and fall apart with you, I can't…I can't give in with you this time."

She almost sounds apologetic, but Perry glares at her contemptuously.

"It's not enough," he throws back at her. "It never is."

Jordan sighs, but she won't kiss his oiled skin. Instead, she flushes the toilet for him, and sets a plastic cup of water on the sink. Then she gets Jack so they can head for her mother's.

When she gets there, she listens to her mother go on about how of course, this was coming, it was only a matter of time, Perry wasn't like their kind.

The lie is filthy in her mouth when Jordan forces herself to agree, and she texts DJ instead, because she knows if she can't bring Perry from the brink…well. Maybe DJ can.

Besides, Jordan knows she can't afford to lose her way this time.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

JD has just finished working 16 hours as an extended result of Perry's walk-out days earlier when he gets Jordan's text. He wants to swear, he wants to cry, he wants to fucking punch something…well, it'd have to be a pillow, but still.

JD thinks he mostly just wants to be angry about it, that Jordan had the utter gall to text him "If you and I can't save him, then no one else can". Because honestly? Way to ratchet the pressure up, it's just…it's not fair.

Even in the unfairness, a small part of him (the part that lies deeply buried beneath the outright worship he has for Perry) is ecstatic that Jordan texted him for anything, is a little thrilled that she even had his number to begin with.

He wisely abstains from flashing it in Carla's face, because Carla is sometimes convinced that she's the only one who knows Perry, who knows him well enough to protect him.

JD looks at the small magnetized mirror in his locker. He looks pale and a little drawn after working so much, but there's a determined spark in his features. He shuts his locker harder than he means to, but is still satisfied with the loud thwack it makes. It sounds final, it sounds…

JD checks himself briefly, because he knows he's going to start singing "Don't Stop Believing" if he's not careful (Glee-style, yo), and heads out of the locker room. He reluctantly breaks Steak Night with Turk with the valid claim that he's exhausted and tired.

Carla's the one who doesn't buy it, and she only tells him to be careful.

JD sighs, because at least Elliot was too busy with Keith to pay much attention to his comings and goings from the shared apartment. Besides, Keith was wearing fireman's suspenders and pants when he dropped in to slip into casual clothing, so JD really doesn't want to know.

He struggles to focus, it doesn't work. He doesn't know what he's walking into. He texts Jordan to ask how bad off Perry is, but she doesn't respond. He heaves a self-supporting sigh before he knocks on the door.

No one answers.

JD snorts, because seriously, it's not like Perry's going to open the door. So he tries the handle, and it's unlocked. He tuts on his way in, because of how unsafe it is, but is completely unprepared for the mess that used to be his mentor sitting on the couch.

He makes a point to lock the door on his way in, because seriously.

There's several empty bottles lying around, both of the liquor and beer variety. The fucking Lifetime channel is on, for Christ's sake. JD knows that while he watches it for pleasure and fun, Perry would have to be gagged and bound for it to be on at all.

Perry is on the couch. His shirt is stained with various fluids, and most of them smell fairly unpleasant. It might also be that the stench of alcohol, body odor, vomit, and urine are permeating the air as well, and JD feels like he might as well have stayed at the hospital if that's what he was going to be dealing with.

JD sighs, and sits beside of Perry. "Tough day, huh?"

Perry sluggishly looks at him. "When'd you…what…how…why'd you…" The words are a cascade of stumbled half-sentences, malformed thoughts, really, that stumble from his thin mouth. Along with it comes the overwhelming scent of bad breath that only being drunk for 3 days can create.

JD winces, and glances at the television. Aw, The Notebook is playing…he shakes his head sharply to refocus. "How's it going?"

The same tumble of questions comes from Perry's mouth, and he swigs from the alcohol again. Perry looks at the television, and then glances at JD. "I…I thought I…I thought I banned…yous."

JD shrugs. "The game is on. I'm here to make sure the pizza gets here." It's a desperate callback to having sneaked his way in before as a delivery boy.

Miraculously, Perry seems to think it makes sense, and says nothing else.

JD doesn't think coffee will help, and texts Jordan simply to find out just what the fuck was he supposed to do, being over here?

She doesn't respond.

JD sighs, and runs a hand over his face, because he's seeing the emotional drunk side of Perry that probably was never made for human eyes—Perry is currently hugging a pillow and watching raptly as Allie and Noah play the piano in an old, rundown house.

JD busies himself making pizza in the oven. He's wondering how he's going to get Perry in the goddamn shower when the door opens again. Having locked the door earlier, JD glances out from the kitchen, and sees Jordan coming in. She breezes past Perry, who doesn't acknowledge her presence.

"I thought you'd help him, DJ!" she snaps quietly at him.

JD glares back at her. He doesn't have much of a backbone, but really, how's he supposed to fix this? "I can't make him sober!"

Jordan sighs, and she suddenly looks so much more fragile and tired than JD's ever thought to associate with her. "I just want you to fix him, because I can't."

JD wonders who he's really fixing.

Ultimately, he ends up making another pizza because Perry devours the first, and JD and Jordan are still hungry. They end up watching the rest of The Notebook together on the couch, with Perry alternately going on about how stupid the whole thing was versus weepily proclaiming that it was so unfair.

JD isn't sure how they end up piling pillows and blankets on the floor of the living room, but Perry seems dead-set on watching movies. JD tries at least for damage control by throwing in Finding Nemo since it's a feel-good movie.

Perry blessedly passes out halfway through, giving an almost maniacal laugh of "he touched the butt" before he goes silent, his head in Jordan's lap and his legs across JD's knees.

JD glances tiredly at Jordan as she strokes Perry's curls. "What makes you think I could save him?"

Jordan looks back, and her gaze is just as exhausted, her face just as pale, her features just as fragile. "I can't save him by myself, DJ. You can't do it either."

JD wants to bluster that of course he could pull Perry from the brink without her help. What he does instead is place a careful hand over Perry's knee. "What makes you think I can save you from him?" he says quietly.

He looks up sharply when Jordan touches his hand over Perry's knee.

"You love him as much as I do," and the rest of the implication is unspoken.

So JD settles for glancing at her tiredly, as if he's decided that giving in is the best option. Perry curls around Jordan's waist as JD settles against her side near the cushions of the couch. She rests her head on his shoulder, and he lets them surround him.

Perry still smells awful, Jordan reeks of too much perfume, JD smells like blood and antiseptic from the hospital.

Finding Nemo is still on—JD decides he'll be the one to stay awake until the end, and curls his fingers both around Perry's hip and on Jordan's shoulder.

This final fight, they'll all win, JD thinks, because he's the strength that goes on until the end.

xxFINxx


End file.
